Locomotive-superheater.



E. H. FOSTER. LOCOMOT-IVE SUPERHEA TER. APPLICATION FILED -ov.s, 191a.

Patented Aug. 31, 1915.

W/ T/VESSES:

1 mm orrrcn ERNEST H. FOSTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

6 LOCOMOTIVE-SUPERHEATER.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug, 31, 1915,

Application filed November 3, 1913. Serial N 0. 798,818.

- To all whom it may concern: a

Be it known that I, ERNEST H. FOSTER, a citizen of the United States, residing atNew York, county of Richmond, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Locomotrye-Superheaters, Of.'Wl1lCh the following 18 a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention which constitutes the subject-matter of this application relates to 1mprovements in steam superheaters, and while not confined to this specific use.

the present embodiment has been pa rticu- 'larly designed for locomotive superheating,

it is to be understood that theinvention is The invention has to do with th t type' of superheater in which the ,indivi ual superheating elements are projected rearwardly froin the smokebox into the tubes of the locomotive boiler, andcthe inventionpertains. largely to the constructlon of these headers and superheating elements and the relation of the headers and superheating elements to'each other and to the smoke box of the, locomotive. 7

In the drawingsyFigure 1 is alongitudinal section of my invention, show1ngtherelation of the superheater to the locomotive boiler and smoke box, so much only of the boiler and smoke box being exhibited as will illustrate the use and the application of the Fig. 2 is a View taken substan= tially on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings'in detail, the reference character 10. designates a conventional type of locomotive provided with a smoke box '11. Located in the smoke box and attached to the tube sheet 12 is a cylindrical or drum header 13 provided with a saturated steam compartment 14 adapted to receive steam through the pipe 15 from the steam dome (not shown). of the boiler and ,a superheated steam compartment 16 adaptvsive work, but work ofa very tedious nature, especially when done in the expanded into the said superheated steam L,

compartment 16. The coils proper project into the forward'end of a plurality of series or sets of fire tubes 23,'as clearly illustrated,

and it will be evident that saturated steam coming into the saturated steam compartment 14, through the dry pipe 15, willpass through the superheater coils 20 into the superheated steam compartment 16 and thence tothe steam chests through pipes 17.

Fromthe foregoing description it will be seen that the form and arrangement of superheater which I have described can readily be installed in the various makes of boilers.

'It is straight 'forward boiler work, both in construction and fastening to the boiler, presents. a mlnim-um amount of calking edges and avoids the necessity of fitting plates to the boiler which is'n'ot nly expeniflicult and field Tlfe header, as stated before, is of substantially cylindrical or drum form and its axis is preferably arranged parallel to theaxis of the fire tubes; This arrangement readily lendsitself-toireceive steam through one end thereof from the usual dry pipe 15 and to discharge steam from the other end through the discharge'pipes 17. By virtue of this arrangement, too,othe connection between the header and dry pipe 15 on the one hand and the connection between the .header and the discharge pipes 17 on the otherare readily accessible, making the assembling and disassembling operations of the simplest form, and reduces the riveting and 'calking to a minimum.

; Another important advantage of this superheater is the'fact that the cylindrical form of the header saves more space, as

compared with any other form heretoforeproposed, thereby giving greater accessibility to the other parts of the locomotive I and. allows more roem"for making repairs. At the same tlme ts form, as will be ap parent, lssuch as to require the least amount of material to give the required area for the passage of the steam and for the necessary tube and pipe connections, Thecylindrical headercispreferably made of a tube flanged at both" ends, or may be madeof a plate bent to the form of a tube with the ends either Welded or riveted. The ends 21 of the superheating coils are connected to the satu-' rated steam compartment 'of the header, -'preferably in a plurality of substantially circumferential rows,;'each row correspond- 15. for rep ing to ahorizontal row or series of fire tubes. It ;Will be noted,'-however, that the 1nd1- vidual fire tubes arelocated below and at difierent distances from the .circumference of the cylindricalhea'der. I therefore provide a novel arrangement which not only I makes all necessary provision for expan-' 'sion of the superheating tubes, but also 'makes provision for spacing the ends of thes'eltubes uniformly throughout the front above the' fire tube 'in which that particular superheating coil is placed, taking care of course'not to makeja sharp turn at the point or points referred to. From thesepoints the ends of the superheater 7 tubes are a dropped llyiivertically downward to points t' with the particular fire tube opening, as j cl connected tofthe lower curved side of the header n ay bfe arrangedjin any desired lon,-.

ftudinalfrelation with respect to each other.

In'bidertoprovide access to the dry pipe:

' or for replacement, the header-,

being provided with a: ,re-

i'n' additioni movable head" 'l 8,: has also a removable closure 27in the partition19. By removing the head and theclo'sure-together withthe with dra y of all the uperheater tubes are accessible throu'ghthe hand holes in the header,and

-the arrangement is such that any set of tubes. may.

maylprovi addition, the hand holes'26 in the Wall through th superheate a damper'29, the' arrangement being such that-when-the'latter is in closed position the passage. ofgases through the sets of tubes 28 is preventedgfzrheheaderis supported at its front'end by means of the'tube sheet, and

aside from-this; itjfh'as no other connection either to the boiler orto the smoke box. as a result, the whol e arrangementhas practically absolute freedom of expansion;

From the foregoinglt will, be obvious that I have devised asuperheater of simplest constructionquires a minimum" amount of material offlfij maximum amount of superheating areafper v quantity of material used; all the parts'have provision for free expansion; the arrangement permits free... and unrestricted circulatiom'provi'des more space therebyfigiv-ing greater accessibility for repairsyandfl'a "super-heater 'capable of being installed on the various types of boilearly shown in'Fig. l. The r r'ows o siiperheater tubes circumferentially' through-[the header, The ends I readily removed for replaceinent or-lre air, 1 In order to make the tubes accessiblelwhilethe header-is in position, I I

, "thesmoke-box. For the purpose of regulating the flow of furnace gases ,fire tubes which contain theil's,-;I employ a baflle 28 and boiler. I v

4. A boiler provided with fire tubes, in e as many changes may be made in point of in use, particularly locomotive detail and other embodiments' resorted to without necessarily departing from spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim is a 1. A boiler provided with fire combination with a superheater comprising tubes, in

the true I a cylindrical or drum headerhaving a saturated steam compartment and a superheated steam compartment, means for connecting the saturated; steam compartment with the '80 steam dome of the boiler, means] for connecting the superheated steam compartment which arefin. the fire tubes and the inlet ends of which are expanded into said;-; s"aturated with the steam c'hest, and superheating ele- Qments connected to said header, the .coils of steam compartment and the. other uends'of which are expanded into the "superheated steam compartment; I

2. A boiler --prdvided with, fire tubes, in

combination with a superheater comprising al cylindrical or drum header, having satuj rated and superheated steam compartmentg'f 'anda plurality of superheater tubes expand ed into (said compartmentsand projecting from 'said i dru'm in substantially radial paths, the coils of-said tubes projecting into said fire tubesofthe boiler. I

A boiler provided with fire tubes and a tube sheet; in combination with a superheat'eri comprising a cylindricalor drum header havingv a' partition therein vdividing the-same into. saturated and superheated A superheater tubes expanded into said comsupported at one'end by the tube sheet of theboiler, and the coils of the superheater tubes projecting-into the fire-tubes of the ,steam compartments, and a plurality of partments andprojecting from said drums substantially in radial paths, said header combination with a superheater compris- ,heatek; tubes expanded into said compartsments, saidsets of tubes located in substantially circumferential rows on the lower curved side of the header and projecting from 'said drum substantially in radial paths, the coils of said superheater tubes pro ecting into the fire-tubes'of the boiler.

.5. A boiler provided with fire tubes, in combination with a superheater comprising a cylindrical or drum header divided into saturated and superheated steam com partmentsand the axis of'which is paral- .1

the axes of said tubes, superheater tubes expanded into the curved sideof said header with one ofthe' ends of each of said tubes leading into the saturated steam compartment and the other end of each of said tubes leading into said v superheated steam to the axes of said tubes, superheater tubes provided with coils projecting into said fire tubes, one of the ends of each of'said tubes connected to said saturated steam compartment and the other end of each of said tubes connected to said superheated steam compartment, the said ends of the said superheating tubes projecting out wardly in a radial path from said drum and arranged circur'nferentially around-the latter.

v7. A boiler of the locomotive type provided with a smoke box, and a tube sheet, in combination with a superheater comprising a cylindrical or drum header arranged in front of the tube sheet and parallel to the boiler and provided with saturated'and superheated steam compartments and openings at either end thereof to said compart-' ments, a dry pipe projecting through 'the tube sheet and secured in the opening at one end, a partition between said compartments provided with an opening, and removable closures for the opening. in said partition and for the opening in the other end, the last mentioned opening and the opening in said partition being large enough to permit access to said dry pipe for-repair and replacement.

8. A boiler of the locomotive type provided with fire tubes, in combination with a superheater comprising a cylindrical or l. .d11ll11 -header provided with a steam inlet at one end of said cylinder opening into a saturated steam compartment and a steam outlet opening at the other end of said cylinder-opening into a superheated steam compartment, and superheating elements, one of the ends of each of which is expanded into said saturated steam compart ment and the other end of each of which is expanded into saidsuperheated steam compartment.-

9. A boiler provided ith r tubes, in V,

combination with a superheater comprising a cylindrical or drum header with its. ,axis in substantial parallelism with the axes of the fire tubes and provided with a saturated and a superheated steam compartment, and superheater tubes lying in the fire tubes and each having its endslying one in front of the other and expanded into said saturated and superheated steam compartments, the said tubes projecting fromsaid drum in substantially radial paths at their extreme ends and then curving, downwardly and extending to the fire tubes and arranged so that no tube lies in front of another whereby any tube may be removed without necessarily disturbing the other tubes.

10. The combination with a boiler having fire tubes and a smoke box, a drum having its upper wall imperforate and its lower wall perforatedto receive the ends of superheater tubes, and having a relas tively large opening in its front wall, a partition dividin .the drum into two 'header's, a plurallty of superheater tubes lying .in the fire tubes with their ends expanded into the wall of the drum on opposite sides of the said partition, and a removable outlet T secured over said relatively l'argeopening in the front wall of the drum, whereby access is given to the ends of the tubes when the T is removed.

11; The combination with a boiler having fire tubes and a smoke box, a drum having its upper wall imperforate and its lower wall perforated to receive the ends of super heater tubes, and having a relatively large opening-in its front wall, a partition dividing the drum into two headers with an opening therethrough opposite said relatively large opening, a removable closure for said opening.inthe-partition, a plurality of superheater tubes lying in the fire tubes with their ends expanded into the wall ofthe drum 'on opposite sides of the said partitmnJand a removable outlet T secured over said relatively large opening in the front wall of-the drum, whereby accessiis given to the ends of the tubes when the T is removed.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

ERNEST H. FOSTER. Witnesses: v

FRANK PAGE, JOHN PRIMROSE. 

